


maybe i’m stalling

by urisleys



Category: American Housewife (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Crushes, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:48:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28057932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/urisleys/pseuds/urisleys
Summary: it really didn’t help that he kept giving trevor that dumb little smile that was far too intimidate given how they were barely considered friends, but trevor had all the strength to ignore how that made him feel.
Relationships: Cooper Bradford/Trevor
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	maybe i’m stalling

there was one rule trevor had for himself for as long as he had conscious thoughts: hate them before they hate you. 

it was easy enough to remember that rule while growing up in westport; he’d seen enough of how  _ different _ kids were treated by the majority of the town, whether it be the exclusion of a plus sized asian girl at cotillion or the mocking of a boy who didn’t come from money. trevor didn’t think he was so above anyone that he could just _not_ be ridiculed for any aspect of his identity he couldn’t control, but he figured if people hated him for his personality instead, it couldn’t be that bad. or, at least, it wouldn’t feel that bad. plus, being hated seem to work out for plenty of successful people—why not him?

the lack of human connection definitely made it easier for him when spoiled westport brats were terrible to the less fortunate young westport residents, himself included at times, but it inevitably left him empty more often than not. sure, he had his family and was eternally grateful for them, as warm and loving as they were despite him being a grade-a asshole, but spending most of your days by yourself at school surrounded by people with friends who care about each other... it got to him sometimes. of course he  _ wanted _ friends of his own—he’s not a robot, though he would probably love that—but so many people in westport just sucked  _ so bad_.

including cooper bradford and oliver otto. 

trevor never really had solid opinions on most people at school, he sort of just grouped them all in as either idiots not worth his time or people like him who were also not worth his time. cooper and oliver fit under both categories, but he never gave them much thought outside of that. from what he knew about them, oliver seemed to suck as a person and cooper was, admittedly, not as bad as the rest of the rich community anymore despite being at the top of it. he did come off as a bit dumb, if anything, but neither boy really made an impact on trevor. 

until a normal day for him got interrupted by the pair striding up to his locker together, giving him a shared grin that could not have been genuine coming from anyone in this town. so, naturally, upon the offering of their  _ friendship _ in return for absolutely nothing, trevor turned it down as fast as he could. 

“i don’t wanna be friends with you morons,” trevor’s brows stayed together in the most judgmental expression he could muster, eyes switching back and forth between the two as he decided how to reiterate that he did  _ not _ want to be their friend. it was easy enough to come up with a simple reason for oliver, but in the split second he gave himself to think of something mean to say about cooper, his mind did a rare blank and the first thing to come out was, “you’ve got a stupid face!”

god.  _ you’ve got a stupid face_?  _ that’s _ what he came up with? as someone who could easily be considered a literal genius, this was not a proud moment of his. he chose to file that entire interaction away deep in the corners of his mind and hope that nothing like that ever happened again. 

thankfully, it didn’t happen again, but what did happen again was cooper and oliver approaching him way sooner than he would have liked—he would have liked them to not approach him at all, but... life, y’know—except this time in patronizing superhero costumes. this exchange was just as annoying, if not more given the outfits that could not have been seen as anything more than mocking him, but it was over soon enough and somehow made him hate the pair a little less when it was over. 

not immediately, of course; he was rightfully pissed they were making fun of him while claiming to want to be his friend and help him—then a quick search to find out what teen helpline was, and yeah, maybe they weren’t so bad. still pretty bad, and a little stupid, but definitely not as bad. still, they did not make enough of an impact on trevor for him to care when they didn’t speak to him again for months. he had his own things to worry about, namely his app and future he’d been working on for god knows how long, and really could not be bothered to think about a couple of boys he genuinely did not care about. then again, they seemed to like taking time out of his day when he least expected it. he really needed them to stop appearing every time he closed his locker. 

trevor would probably never admit this, but he did (eventually) become grateful for oliver. and cooper to an extent, much later on. it was unlikely he would succeed with his app by himself, as much as he liked to convince himself otherwise before, so oliver was a basic necessity for his career. then, at some point, he became a sort of... friend? and trevor discovered that he  _ really _ liked having a friend. it was somewhat new, but it was mostly familiar in how similar it was to his relationship with his siblings. 

then there was cooper, who was kind of a question mark for trevor, because they weren’t necessarily friends and he could be really annoying at times, but—because there always has to be a but—he was kinda  _ really _ cute. something like that normally wouldn’t be something to phase trevor, given that he had suppressed every emotion besides anger since he was a toddler, yet that fact in itself might be the very reason he  _ was _ phased by that. to complicate things further, cooper clearly wasn’t a fan of how much time oliver spent with trevor, so the latter wasn’t quite sure where they stood exactly. acquaintances? oliver’s new friend who is kinda attracted to oliver’s best friend who might have a thing for oliver? it was all very confusing. 

trevor would have been perfectly fine leaving that as it were; confrontation was never really his thing, anyway. cooper, however, had a big mouth that he liked to use without filtering the words through his brain first, and felt it was very important and urgent to speak with trevor alone while oliver was being harassed by his mother for longer than usual one day. 

“okay, amigo. give it to me straight up.”

trevor looked up at nothing in thought, hoping to connect whatever cooper was talking about without having to ask. that did not work. 

shaking his head, “i really wish i ever knew what you were talking about sometimes, but since i don’t, please. go on.”

“c’mon, you know,” cooper gave a pointed look, to which the only response was a set of raised brows. “huh, i thought you were the smart one—oh, that was a poor choice of wording, you look angry. haha, moving on! you and oliver, that’s what i’m talking about.”

“...what about us?”

“exactly! that’s what i’m asking.”

trevor blinked, “you lost me again.”

“dios mio, dude,” letting out an exasperated sigh, cooper rolled his eyes. “are you two, like...  _ together_? like, bros but romantically?”

“that’s not a thing.”

“yes, it is, but that’s not my point. he hasn’t told me if you guys are together, but i totally support it if you are! like, i’m gay so i obviously don’t care, but you’ve been spending so much time together and—“

“you can stop talking now,” trevor took a small double take when cooper quieted. shaking out of it, “you don’t have anything to worry about, i’m not into oliver. that’s actually pretty gross because he’s like a brother—and not in a romantic way, before you ask—so, he’s all yours, buddy.”

“what?”

“i said he’s all yours?”

“yeah, but,” the blonde furrowed his brows. “why would you say that?”

a short moment of silence passed between the pair, who were both equally confused for the same reason. 

“wait,” trevor squinted. “you don’t like oliver that way?”

“what? no.”

“then why’d he say you got all mad when we were working together everyday?”

“huh? ...oh, that! yeah, well, i just moved out of a mansion that i’ve lived in my whole life, into a tiny shared room with my best friend that i’ve barely seen since moving in with because he’s been busy hanging out with someone who hates my face. would  _ you _ be happy in that situation, hombre?”

“uh,” trevor felt dumb for the first time in a while. “probably not. sorry,” a pause... “i don’t hate your face, by the way.”

cooper opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by an irritated oliver walking into the room with a yelling katie following closely behind, and instead opted to shoot trevor a small but bright as usual smile in response. 

which was— _ yeah _ . yeah, he definitely thought cooper was cute. 

that was it, though. nothing more. cooper was still spoiled and annoying, even if he did have his good moments. even if his good moments were becoming more common and his not-so-good moments were becoming more tolerable. and it really didn’t help that he kept giving trevor that dumb little smile that was far too intimidate given how they were barely considered friends, but trevor had all the strength to ignore how that made him feel. simply finding someone cute was enough for him—he would much rather do without anything deeper. 

it was already a lot to go from zero friends for sixteen years to gaining two relatively close friends at once, and trevor had gotten used to opening up to an extent for them, but his trust issues... they were still going  _ very _ strong. oliver and cooper only recently started acting like decent people, so it made sense that trevor wasn’t ready to fully commit to their friendship, let alone anything more. it was risky enough for him to even put himself out there in a platonic light. 

at some point, though, that changed. the toleration of cooper’s annoying moments slowly shifted into mild amusement until reaching blatant fondness, and he later found himself returning the soft looks he’d tried his best to ignore. the two were even able to exist together without needing oliver there to prevent bickering or awkwardness. one might have even called them friends. 

he wouldn’t dare disrupt the new bond he had with cooper by expressing any sudden emotions, but—but he could at least admit to himself,  _ finally_, that what he felt for the other boy was most definitely not platonic. he hated it, obviously, because it was so typical and cliché for someone like him to have a crush on someone like cooper, but he hates it a lot less when cooper’s good moments are meant for him. 

**Author's Note:**

> idk how i got myself dragged into this crack ship but here we are <3 degrade me on twitter @mlmcooper about how wrong i am


End file.
